15-letter words containing l, a, c, r, e
- richard neville — Earl of (Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury"the Kingmaker") 1428–71, English military leader and statesman.
- ricinoleic acid — a colorless to yellow, viscous, liquid, water-insoluble, unsaturated hydroxyl acid, C 1 8 H 3 4 O 3 , occurring in castor oil in the form of the glyceride: used chiefly in soaps and textile finishing.
- rocket airplane — an airplane propelled wholly or mainly by a rocket engine.
- rocket launcher — a tube attached to a weapon for the launching of rockets.
- rockrose family — the plant family Cistaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants and shrubs having simple, usually opposite leaves, solitary or clustered flowers, and capsular fruit, and including the frostweed, pinweed, and rockrose.
- royal air force — aerial branch of British military
- royal enclosure — at the Royal Ascot horse-race meeting, an area of Ascot racecourse which is reserved for the Royal Family, members, and their guests
- royal worcester — Worcester china made after 1862
- russell's attic — (mathematics) An imaginary room containing countably many pairs of shoes (i.e. a pair for each natural number), and countably many pairs of socks. How many shoes are there? Answer: countably many (map the left shoes to even numbers and the right shoes to odd numbers, say). How many socks are there? Also countably many, we want to say, but we can't prove it without the Axiom of Choice, because in each pair, the socks are indistinguishable (there's no such thing as a left sock). Although for any single pair it is easy to select one, we cannot specify a general method for doing this.
- sabbatical year — Also called sabbatical leave. (in a school, college, university, etc.) a year, usually every seventh, of release from normal teaching duties granted to a professor, as for study or travel.
- sailor's choice — any of various small percoid fishes of American coastal regions of the Atlantic, esp the grunt Haemulon parra and the pinfish
- sailor's-choice — any of several fishes living in waters along the Atlantic coast of the U.S., especially a pinfish, Lagodon rhomboides, ranging from Massachusetts to Texas, and a grunt, Haemulon parrai, ranging from Florida to Brazil.
- salary increase — an increase in the salary or pay given to an employee
- sale of produce — the selling of something that is produced, esp agricultural products
- salem secretary — a tall cabinet having a recessed upper part fitted with drawers and shelves and a lower part with doors and a section falling or pulling out to serve as a writing surface.
- samuel prescott — Samuel, 1751–77, U.S. patriot during the American Revolution: rode with Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn Colonists that British troops were marching from Boston, April 18, 1775.
- sand-lime brick — a hard brick composed of silica sand and a lime of high calcium content, molded under high pressure and baked.
- scared shitless — terrified
- scarlet lychnis — a plant, Lychnis chalcedonica, of the pink family, having scarlet or sometimes white flowers, the arrangement and shape of the petals resembling a Maltese cross.
- scarlet tanager — an American tanager, Piranga olivacea, the male of which is bright red with black wings and tail during the breeding season.
- schillerization — the process of altering crystals to produce schiller
- sclerodermatous — Zoology. covered with a hardened tissue, as scales.
- secondary color — a color, as orange, green, or violet, produced by mixing two primary colors.
- secondary metal — metal derived wholly or in part from scrap.
- secondary xylem — xylem derived from the cambium during secondary growth.
- seleucia pieria — an ancient port in Syria, on the River Orontes: the port of Antioch, of military importance during the wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids; largely destroyed by earthquake in 526; site of present-day Samandaǧ (Turkey)
- self-abhorrence — a feeling of extreme repugnance or aversion; utter loathing; abomination.
- self-caricature — a picture, description, etc., ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities or defects of persons or things: His caricature of the mayor in this morning's paper is the best he's ever drawn.
- self-lacerating — to tear roughly; mangle: The barbed wire lacerated his hands.
- self-laceration — the result of lacerating; a rough, jagged tear.
- self-proclaimed — to announce or declare in an official or formal manner: to proclaim war.
- semi-articulate — uttered clearly in distinct syllables.
- semicrystalline — partly or imperfectly crystalline.
- semicylindrical — of, relating to, or having the shape of a semicylinder
- semilogarithmic — (of graphing) having one scale logarithmic and the other arithmetic or of uniform gradation.
- semitranslucent — imperfectly or almost translucent.
- separate school — (in Canada) a school for a large religious minority financed by its rates and administered by its own school board but under the authority of the provincial department of education
- ship's articles — a type of contract by which sailors agree to the conditions, payment, etc, for the ship in which they are going to work
- shoulder charge — an instance of a player charging into another so that there is contact between their shoulders (permissible in some circumstances)
- silicon carbide — a very hard, insoluble, crystalline compound, SiC, used as an abrasive and as an electrical resistor in objects exposed to high temperatures.
- simple fraction — a ratio of two integers.
- simple fracture — a fracture in which the bone does not pierce the skin.
- sinclair, clive — Clive Sinclair
- sled cultivator — go-devil (def 5).
- small cranberry — See under cranberry (def 1).
- snafu principle — /sna'foo prin'si-pl/ [WWII Army acronym for "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up"] "True communication is possible only between equals, because inferiors are more consistently rewarded for telling their superiors pleasant lies than for telling the truth." - a central tenet of Discordianism, often invoked by hackers to explain why authoritarian hierarchies screw up so reliably and systematically. The effect of the SNAFU principle is a progressive disconnection of decision-makers from reality. This lightly adapted version of a fable dating back to the early 1960s illustrates the phenomenon perfectly: In the beginning was the plan, and then the specification; And the plan was without form, and the specification was void. And darkness was on the faces of the implementors thereof; And they spake unto their leader, saying: "It is a crock of shit, and smells as of a sewer." And the leader took pity on them, and spoke to the project leader: "It is a crock of excrement, and none may abide the odor thereof." And the project leader spake unto his section head, saying: "It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide it." The section head then hurried to his department manager, and informed him thus: "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength." The department manager carried these words to his general manager, and spoke unto him saying: "It containeth that which aideth the growth of plants, and it is very strong." And so it was that the general manager rejoiced and delivered the good news unto the Vice President. "It promoteth growth, and it is very powerful." The Vice President rushed to the President's side, and joyously exclaimed: "This powerful new software product will promote the growth of the company!" And the President looked upon the product, and saw that it was very good. After the subsequent disaster, the suits protect themselves by saying "I was misinformed!", and the implementors are demoted or fired.
- social democrat — a person who advocates a gradual transition to socialism or a modified form of socialism by and under democratic political processes.
- social heritage — the entire inherited pattern of cultural activity present in a society.
- social register — a directory or list of people prominent in the fashionable society of a given area
- social security — (usually initial capital letters) a program of old-age, unemployment, health, disability, and survivors insurance maintained by the U.S. federal government through compulsory payments by specific employer and employee groups.